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Here is a good look by Kevin Kitchen from Ones Upon a Game of our Lock 'n Load Tactical Solo system.

Kevin posted this on his Blog on Board Game Geek

I'm not a fan of making extensive "how to play videos." Especially for a yet to be an available title. There is too much riding on me in terms of learning it right, playing it right, and presenting it right. Odd too since I'm normally always right (or at least think I am).

So I'm happy to say that I was, in fact, wrong about the Lock 'n Load Tactical: Solo system and how it actually plays out once you get past its known "limitations" and proceed into the gameplay itself. It presented an AI challenge on par with its older sibling Conflict of Heroes: Eastern Front – Solo Expansion. The flowchart usage becomes very reminiscent of the GMT COIN Series in that it becomes somewhat easy to remember what the final action is going to be given the current state of the board.

So continuing the setup (with a couple of changes) from before (Lock 'n Load: To Solo or Not to Solo...That is the Question!) where I waxed ineloquently about the fears I had with previous attempts and the number of decisions I would be forced to make, here's a couple of full turns of the game using the solo system as well as some final thoughts.

A couple of things I would definitely like to see changed either on release or future editions. Smaller flowcharts for quicker and easier reference. And instead of the large charts, add more detail about following each chart to the rulebook. Secondly, the rulebook could use a little more fleshing out in terms of clarifying some of the gotchas that might develop for experienced and new players alike. Of course, these could be resolved with updated PDFs as well.

Otherwise, as I say near the end of the second video... I wanted to stop recording the session and just play. Which I did. And had an excellent time.

Definitely, keep this one on your hot list and grab it as soon as you can as well as the new and improved versions of the Lock 'n Load Tactical series. You'll regret it if you don't.

A few gamers asked why we didn't have setup hexes for the scenarios and I wanted to explain this a little. Many gamers already feel that LnLT is solo friendly. We wanted to add a little more edge to the gameplay while playing solo.

As we started playtesting we had a lot of stops and starts. When we started feeling this project was possible, I gave Sean two design guidelines to work by.

1) LnLT Solo works with all LNLT games past, present and future giving you the most bang for your buck. One LnLT Solo gave for the whole series.

2) I wanted it to work with as many of the pre-designed scenarios available.

The LnLT series already has great scenarios and if you play each side once that gives you double the playability. Below are some of the scenario counts.

Heroes of Normandy - 31 scenarios play both sides 62 scenarios.
Heroes Against the Red Star - 25 scenarios play both sides 50 scenarios.
Heroes in Defiance - 30 scenarios play both sides 60 scenarios.
Heroes of North Africa - 20 scenarios play both sides 40 scenarios.
Heroes of the Falklands - 13 scenarios play both sides 26 scenarios.
Heroes of the Motherland - 12 scenarios play both sides 24 scenarios plus the campaign.
Heroes of the Nam - 30 scenarios play both sides 60 scenarios.
Heroes of the Pacific - 12 scenarios play both sides 24 scenarios.

That are just the core games not counting any of the scenarios from Compendiums, expansion games or the Battle Generators. We agree not every scenario can be played via both sides but those are a very small number of scenarios.

Now on setting up a scenario, we went with the scenario setup as it described in the scenario to allow for the most replay value.

So I hope that gives you a better insight into our thinking. Please note that the Events Table and Weather Tables are more for the Battle Generators and really should not be used with the game scenarios, ofcourse your welcome to do so but it may unbalance the scenarios.

Makes sense to me. I guess if people want setup hexes, the community could give a list of setups they use, whether it is for solo or face to face as it should not matter. Who knows, maybe the experts could give their "best hexes" for each scenario.

Also, is "activateable" on card 41 spelled two different ways? (see 13:57 of video 1) Is that in the final copy, also?

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Lock 'n Load Publishing is a board & digital game developer and publisher located in Pueblo, Colorado.

Lock 'n Load Publishing offers over seventy products including our historical, conflict-centered series, science fiction, and horror. Our board games focus on strategy and interaction. We love designing, developing and most of all playing games. We thank God for blessing us so we can follow our passions and we are grateful for your support. We want people to get together, break out a game, and have fun.

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